Another example of filling a labor gap is Branson, Missouri, a town of 12,000 inhabitants in a deep red corner of a red state that daily hosts tens of thousands of visitors to its many tourist attractions during the summer.  I’ve attended meetings of the Branson Chamber of Commerce and met with the mayor, and they rely on Summer Work Travel to fill their seasonal labor shortage. The presence of the students is important enough to Branson that the local Chamber created a “community support group” to help visiting students acclimate, to give them an opportunity to have an informal “host family” to invite them over for occasional dinners, and to provide a fuller understanding of American life and culture. To help students get to and from work, Branson has created an informal ride network. Community support groups exist in most major Summer Work Travel destinations, testifying to the value the students bring to these communities and creating additional opportunities for genuine cultural exchange. 
 

2. There are unacceptable overstay rates – During my time at the Alliance, I led small delegations of exchange sponsors to visit over 60 U.S. embassies and consulates to discuss the programs. Many we visited multiple times. We met with both public diplomacy and consular staffers, and I never saw or heard anything to suggest that the consular corps wasn’t appropriately applying Section 214(b) in its adjudications. The pattern that does emerge is that an increase in overstays will affect the next season’s adjudications.
 

3. Criminal networks exploit these categories for illicit activities – To my knowledge, this has only happened once. During the George W. Bush administration, U.S.-Russia relations hit a particularly low point. Shortly after a Moscow visit by Secretary Rice that turned out to be somewhat challenging, the U.S. embassy invited an Alliance delegation to Moscow.  At that meeting, senior embassy staffers announced their intention to immediately double the size of the Summer Work Travel program, as a start on improving bilateral relations. The Alliance team strenuously objected, arguing that Russia did not possess the civic culture necessary to accommodate a program of that size. After a long discussion, the Embassy decided to proceed with its plan. As we feared, some criminal activity resulted, and was dealt with through an interagency task force. 

 

Some years after the Russia program was cleaned up and reduced to its original size, the Moscow Public Affairs Officer told me that Summer Work Travel had broadened the reach of the Fulbright program by creating a cohort of bright Russian students at regional universities who spoke English well enough to be competitive with Moscow and St. Petersburg students for Fulbright awards. The embassy viewed this outcome as a considerable plus. 
 

4. The programs ‘masquerade’ as cultural exchange – According to a recent Alliance survey, well over 90 per cent of exchange participants recommend the program to friends and family and gain a better understanding of the U.S. while they are here. By federal regulation, the participants in SWT are university students, an elite population in every country in the world. I’m not aware of an SWT alum who became a prime minister, but the program almost certainly attracts participants who will become government officials at all levels, business and community leaders, journalists, teachers, and parents. Giving that large cohort of future leaders an opportunity to live and work in the U.S., and to better understand our country and people, is not a “masquerade.”  It’s genuine public diplomacy, with unique reach.